Migration

View of Altos de Chavón, near La RomanaCourtesy Mark Salyers

The Dominican Republic was a country of migrants in the
late
1980s; according to the 1981 census, nearly one-quarter of
the
population was living in a province other than that in
which they
had been born. Surveys in the mid-1970s found that nearly
twothirds of city dwellers and half of those in the
countryside had
migrated at least once. Rural areas in general, especially
in the
Central Cibao, have experienced significant levels of outmigration . The movement of peasants and the landless into
the
republic's growing cities accounted for the lion's share
of
migration. Indeed, Dominicans had even coined a new word,
campuno, to describe the rural-urban campesino
migrant.
The principal destinations for migrants were the National
District followed by the provinces of La Romana,
Independencia,
and San Pedro de Macorís
(see
fig. 1). In the National
District,
46 percent of the inhabitants were migrants. The
industrial free
zones were the other major destinations for migrants in
the
1970s.

Women predominated in both rural-urban and urban-rural
migration. Men, however, were more likely than women to
move from
city to city or from one rural area to another. In
general,
migrants earned more than non-migrants, and they suffered
lower
rates of unemployment, although underemployment was
pervasive.
Urban-rural migrants had the highest incomes. This
category,
however, consisted of a select group of educated and
skilled
workers, mostly government officials, teachers, and the
like, who
moved from cities to assume specific jobs in rural areas.
They
received higher wages as a recompense for the lack of
urban
amenities in villages.

Migrants spoke of the migration chain (cadena)
that
tied them to other migrants and to their home communities.
Kin
served as the links in the chain. They cared for family,
lands,
and businesses left behind, or, if they had migrated
earlier,
assisted the new arrivals with employment and housing.The
actual
degree of support families could, or were willing to, give
a
migrant varied widely.

The process of rural-urban migration typically involved
a
series of steps. The migrant gradually abandoned
agriculture and
sought more non-agricultural sources of income. Migrants
rarely
arrived in the largest, fastest growing cities "green"
from the
countryside. They acquired training and experience in
intermediate-sized cities and in temporary nonfarm jobs en
route.

International migration played a significant role in
the
livelihood of many Dominicans. Anywhere from 8 to 15
percent of
the total population resided abroad. Estimates of those
living
and working in the United States in the mid-1980s ranged
from
300,000 to as high as 800,000. Roughly 200,000 more were
in San
Juan, Puerto Rico, many of them presumably waiting to get
into
the United States. Most migrants went to New York; but by
the
mid-1980s, their destinations also included other cities
of the
eastern seaboard.

A sizable minority (about one-third) emigrated because
they
were unemployed, but most did so to attain higher income,
to
continue their educations, or to join other family
members. In
the early 1980s, most emigrants were relatively better
educated
and more skilled than the Dominican populace as a whole.
Most
came from cities, but the middling to large farms of the
overpopulated Cibao also sent large numbers. Working in
the
United States has become almost an expected part of the
lives of
Dominicans from families of moderate means.

Cash remittances from Dominicans living abroad have
become an
integral part of the national economy. Migrants'
remittances
constituted a significant percentage of the country's
foreign
exchange earnings
(see Dominican Republic - Balance of Payments
, ch. 3).
Remittances
were used to finance businesses, to purchase land, and to
bolster
the family's standard of living. Most migrants saw sending
money
as an obligation. Although some refused to provide
assistance,
they came under severe criticism from both fellow migrants
and
those who remained behind. The extent to which a migrant's
earnings were committed to family and kin was sometimes
striking.
Anthropologist Patricia Pessar has described a Dominican
man in
New York who earned less than US$500 per month. He sent
US$150 of
this to his wife and children and another US$100 to his
parents
and unmarried siblings.

Money from abroad had a multiplier effect; it spawned a
veritable construction boom in migrants' hometowns and
neighborhoods in the mid-1970s. Migrants also contributed
significant sums for the church back home. Many parish
priests
made annual fund-raising trips to New York to seek
donations for
local parish needs.

The impact of out-migration was widely felt; in one
Cibao
village, for example, 85 percent of the households had at
least
one member living in New York in the mid-1970s. Where
migration
was common, it altered a community's age pyramid: eighteen
to
forty-five-year olds (especially males) were essentially
missing.
Emigration also eliminated many of the natural choices for
leadership roles in the home community.

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